Survival Stories From The Hinterlands
After participating in close to 112 gaming sessions so far using the 1st edition ruleset of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, I have decided it was time to compose a journal of sorts to document these sessions. Quite a number of events in this game where tales of heroic deeds, tragic deaths, otherworldly transformations and magical transportations have transpired. The goal of this journal is to document much of this, mostly going forward in game time but perhaps to reminisce on adventures past.
All characters have been generated using the rules defined in the AD&D Player's Handbook. Ability scores were generated using one of the methods prescribed in the AD&D First Edition Dungeon Master's Guide on page 11, Method I and Method III being the most popular choice. Aging rules were strictly followed, calculating the age of character at creation and applying any modifiers to the ability scores. As the game progressed, these numbers could be changed as by the time of this writing, over 2 years of time has passed. Any surviving characters birthdays will pass and recorded, potentially applying aging modifiers to their ability scores.
Our campaign started on August 17th, 2022. This is the first of a series of stories, anecdotes and notes about our band of adventurers based out of a region known as the Hinterlands. The first characters I rolled up as part of my “character stable” were Ithimyr Sarfanis, a half-elf Ranger / Cleric multiclass character, Smedley “Jek” Brinlock, a halfling Thief and Maervahr, a human Magic-User and one of two to ever successfully obtain psionic ability. Of these characters, only Maervahr has survived.
The in game year was 494 during the second month of the year, known as Blade Moon. On the 5th day of a 28 day month, the adventure began one day before the Festival of the Goddess Riswa.
Our adventuring party formed in a small town known as Gren, a community largely centered around a couple of taverns, a tea-house and a Temple to Riswa. After speaking to the guard captain, Thomas Duskhollow and the mayor Ben Tamford, we were tasked with the exploration of the nearby abandoned Chapel and the removal of the local brigands that have taken up residence on the grounds. Our initial group included three paladins, Erebus, Talon and Sander, along with Vella Sloan (a human cleric of Rook), Zenobia (an elf thief and magic-user), Porto (the party's halfling thief) and Ithimyr (a half-elf cleric and ranger in service to the goddess Riswa).
The first foray up the river passed alongside a vast stretch of grassland where the grasses rise taller than the height of the average human. When we arrived at the Chapel grounds and the accompanying Chapterhouse, we noticed signs of habitation: many tracks leading up from the river, a mule and movement behind the chapel's stained glass. However, before we could finish exploring we were spotted by one of the brigand guards and were thus engaged in battle!
This was the group of brigands that had taken up residence inside the Chapterhouse and the very ones we were tasked with evicting. Luckily, we made short work of them without losing any lives in the process. After questioning one of the surrendering brigands, he revealed that they were part of a larger band, based out of large cave complex somewhere in the hills to the southeast of Gren. Their leader only known as “Rob”.
After their defeat we returned to Gren to report back to Thomas Duskhollow, and not without some amount of treasure and a key.
